Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday unveiled more details on the Rs 20 lakh crore financial package announced by Prime Minister Modi on May 12.
Key points from her speech:
• Free food grains for migrant workers:
The second phase of the financial package focussed primarily on migrant workers and street vendors.
- Free food grain supply to all migrant labourers for next 2 months. State governments will deal with the distribution of food grains. Each worker will get 5kgs of rice or wheat and 1kg of chana.
- 8 crore migrants who do not have either central or state PDS card, will benefit from the free food grains scheme and Rs 3,500 crore will be spent on this.
• One nation one ration card:
The national portability of ration cards will enable migrants to avail ration card benefits from any state. This would benefit 67 crore beneficiaries or 83 per cent of PDS beneficiaries, in 23 states by August. By March 2021, 100 per cent coverage under 'One Nation One Ration Card' will be done.
• PM Awaz Yojana to facilitate affordable rental housing for migrants.
-A Rs 70,000-crore boost to housing sector by extending the subsidy scheme for affordable housing for the middle income group.
-The credit-linked subsidy scheme for the middle income group with an annual income of Rs 6 lakh to Rs 18 lakh was operationalised from May 2017 and extended up to March 2020.
-She said the scheme is being extended by one year to benefit 2.5 lakh middle income families.
-Credit linked subsidy scheme extended to March 2021 for affordable housing. This is expected to spur demand and create jobs.
• Rs 5000 crore loan for street vendors:
-A Rs 5,000-crore special credit facility for street vendors by providing them with working capital of up to Rs 10,000. This would support 50 lakh street vendors.
•Rs 30,000 for post harvest requirements
Rs 30,000 crore to be disbursed through the NABARD for post harvest requirement of Rabi crops and preparation of Kharif crops. This is expected to benefit 3 crore farmers. The additional refinance support is for crop loan requirement through rural co-op banks and regional rural banks.
• 2% interest subvention for prompt payment on loans below Rs 50,000 in Mudra Shishu category.
• Concessional credit through Kisan credit cards. Fishermen will also be included in the scope of Kisan credit card.
• Afforestation: Rs 6,000 crore to Scheduled tribes for afforestation, plantation and other related works.
Centre's work in past 2 months
The Finance Minister also highlighted the work of the central government in the past two months.
• Rs 10,000 crore spent under MGNREGS
Rs 10,000 crore has been spent in the last two months on creating 14.62 crore man-days of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) to help migrant workers. The work has been offered to 2.33 crore wage seekers till May 13. About 40-50 per cent more persons have been enrolled as compared to May last year.
• Three crore farmers have already availed the benefit of the 3 month loan moratorium.
• The government has allocated Rs 63 lakh crore for agricultural sector in the past two months.
• The government has focussed on liquidity support for farmers and rural economy even during the lockdown.
• Rs 6,700 crore allotted to state agencies for procurement, the FM added while highlighting the work of the government in the past 2 months.
• 7,200 new SHGs formed for urban poor during the lockdown period.
• Rs11,000 crores have been allocated to SDRF funds of state. This has been used for creating urban shelters for homeless and migrant labourers.
• Reforms on the agenda: universal minimum wage, national floor wage to avoid regional disparity, annual health check ups for workers, definition of interstate migrants, portability of welfare benefits, mandatory ESIC.
In her first briefing on Wednesday, the Finance Minister announced the slashing of TDS/TCS rate for non-salary payments to residents by 25 per cent for the remaining months of the fiscal. She also extended the due date for filing income tax returns for 2019-20 till November 30, 2020.
Announcing a slew of measures to help companies and taxpayers amid the COVID-19 crisis, she said the reduction in TDS (tax deducted at source)/TCS (tax collected at source) rate would release about Rs 50,000 crore in the hands of people.
A major chunk of the stimulus package was kept apart for vulnerable segments like micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and non-bank lenders.
Measures like emergency credit line of collateral-free Rs 3 lakh crore from banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and a Fund of Funds with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore is expected to help the sector protect jobs and revive country's economic growth which is impacted the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19 disease.
